According to new data, an increasing number of marketers believe digital is more effective at building brands than offline media, leading to a dramatic shift in attitudes.
The vast majority (86.7%) of the more than 1,300 brand marketers who completed Marketing Week’s second annual Effective Language survey, powered by Kantar, believe digital channels for content and advertising is an effective tool for branding compared to 80.1% who think the same about offline media.
The survey reveals a shift in attitudes from the established belief that digital delivers more effective short-term results than long-term branding, which is being driven primarily by marketers. B2B. More than a third (38.3%) of B2B marketers say digital is ‘very effective’ in branding compared to 34.9% of B2C marketers who believe the same. While B2C marketers (37.4%) remain more active about the branding capabilities of offline channels than their B2B counterparts (30.1%).
However, it’s important to note that B2B, B2C, and those who combine the two consider digital to be more effective at building brands than offline.
The same is true when you break down the sample by company size. Marketers working for SMEs (a company with fewer than 250 employees) believe that digital (83.3%) is more effective than offline (74.7%). And larger companies (more than 250 employees) believe the same, with 90% saying digital is an effective tool for branding compared to 85.6% saying the same is true for digital methods. offline media.
It’s also important to note that we don’t know if respondents included video, SEO, etc in digital media because we didn’t specifically ask this.
However, it is a contradiction that more than 40% of respondents do not believe that branding requires a different strategic or creative approach online than offline. However, a similar number (45.7%) believe that offline and digital strategies should be separate and distinct.
Marketers say digital strategies require “stronger creativity” because consumers have a “different mindset” when it comes to absorbing digital content. But all of these responses show that marketers appreciate that digital and offline are two very different mediums.
The answer to this contradiction seems to lie in the size of the company. While nearly half of SME marketers (47.5%) do not believe it is necessary to change their approach depending on the channel (and that is higher than 39.2% of those who do), this is completely different. The whole thing is reversed when looking at larger firms. More than half (52.8%) of larger companies believe a different approach is needed compared to 34.8% who are satisfied having the same approach for both.
There is, of course, speculation that budget differences are the sole reason behind this thinking, but looking back at all respondents, digital media spending has increased by 48.3% in the past year. while offline spending fell by 25.6%.
Cause and Effect
However, perhaps the reason behind this change could be that it is relatively easy to track the effectiveness of digital campaigns compared to their offline campaigns. More than two-thirds of marketers (71.8%) believe the effectiveness of a digital campaign can be easily measured, which is a significant lead compared to 38.1% who think it can be easily measured effectiveness of offline campaigns.
As more and more marketers feel pressured to deliver results – Marketing Week’s Effective Language survey revealed there has been an increase in performance compared to brand marketing – there is a Perhaps this shift to digital preference is not surprising.
B2B and B2C marketers both agree that digital is easier to measure, with 70.8% of B2B marketers finding digital easy to measure and only 37.3% saying the same is true for B2B marketers. offline.
While in B2C, the number of people who feel digital is easy to measure is down (67.2%) compared to 43.5% of people who feel the same way offline.
All of this taken together, it’s clear that digital branding is something many marketers believe is possible – and the time has come, according to Tom Roach, columnist for Marketing Week section. In a column published earlier this week, he said: “Improves in the impact of branding ads can happen through better integration through the channel, not just by creating more impact at the top.”
More than just a productivity tool, digital is a brand-building tool that can last.
Marketing Week will publish a series of content based on Effective Languages data, including a deeper analysis of why many marketers consider digital channels effective for branding. .
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